698 



Birds of Celebes: Rallidae. 



age and season, and, apparently, also of sex. Some adults have the remiges evenly 

 notched with dull rufous on the inner web, others are here vermiculated with rufous 

 and dusky (the notches being broken up) ; some are more uniform and brighter mnber 

 above, others have the middles of the feathers darker; in some the chin and cheeks 

 are nearly black, in others as much white as black; also the barring of the sides of 

 the breast is carried over on to the upper wing-coverts in varying quantities. Our 

 two young specimens differ from one another even more, and, further, they do not 

 fully bear out the distinctions found by Dr. Sharpe (12) in other young specimens in 

 the Leyden Museum. 



Chick. Clothed in silky brown-black down; bill blackish, tip of lower mandible pale, shell- 

 chipping point whitish; legs and feet leaden brown; tarsus 18.5; middle toe with claw 

 20.5 mm (4 young, about a day old, with mother, Kema, 19. Aug. 93: P.& F. Saras.). 



Claw. The pollex of the cliick is furnished with a small claw. This attains to a larger size 

 in the adult, and might possibly be of use in fighting. We find tliis claw in a 

 number of Ealline genera before us; it would appear to run through the family. 



Selenka says that it is also found in many diurnal Birds -of -prey, HiriauJo, 

 some Game-bii-ds, as well as in Marsh- and Waterfowl (see, also, Gadow, Diet. B. 

 pt. I, 1893, 89). 



Measurements (6 adults, N. Celebes). Wing 139 — 161 mm; tail ca. 55; tarsus 49 — 51; middle 

 toe and claw ca. 54; bill from supraloral feathers 31 — 33: in two young specimens 

 29.5, 30. 



The specimen with the smallest wing, but not bill, is a female, the largest is a 

 male, in the others the sex is not marked. From the considerable difference, it is 

 probable that the sexes differ in size, the male being larger. 



Distribution. Celebes: — Minahassa (Quoy & Gaimard a I, Forsten 2, etc.), Gorontalo 

 Distr. (v. Rosenberg 2, a 5, Riedel 11), Paguatt (Leyden Mus. 12], Kandari, 

 S. E. Celebes (Beccari 5), West Celebes — Dongala and Tawaya (Doherty 16). 



This Rail was one of the species obtained when the "Astrolabe" visited 

 Manado in July, 1828. It forms one of a group, consisting of H. sidcirostris 

 (Wall.), Sula, H. saturata Salvad., Salawatti and New Guinea, H. insignis Sclat., 

 New Britain, and H. torquata (Linn.) of the Philippines. The last is easily dis- 

 tinguishable from H. celehensis by its chestnut praepectoral collar and black 

 throat and cheeks; H. sulcirostris and saturata are less easily separable, but both 

 have the cheeks and throat jet-black and H. saturata is said to have a longer 

 and stouter bill, and its tarsus measures, according to Salvadori, 53 — 57 mm. 



This species seems to be rarer in North Celebes than its ally Hypotaenidia 

 philippensis, and, so far as we know, it has not yet been recorded from the 

 Southern Peninsula, though Beccari found it in the South-east, and Doherty 

 in the West. 



-i * 299. HYPOTAENIDIA SULCIROSTRIS (Wall.). 



Sulan Barred Rail. 



a. Rallus sulcirostris (1) Wall., P. Z. S. 1862, 345; (2) Finsch, Neu Guinea 1865, 180. 



h. RaUus celebensis (1) Schl., Mus. P.-B., Ralli, 1865, 22, pt. (in syn.). 



Hypotaenidia sulcirostris (1) Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. 1875, VH, 677, 976; (IIj Sclat., 



